See the frog? That’s me.

Whether it’s a good idea or not, I’m the guy that never wants to give up. When I see my favorite NFL team punting the ball or going for the field goal at “4th and goal” it drives me nuts—I would go for the first or the touchdown every time. Now I’m no football expert, and I am sure smarter, more experienced coaches than I, are simply playing the percentages, but there’s something in me that always wants to win now, or go out in a blaze of glory trying.

A few weeks ago it became clear, here at Logos, that we were within striking distance of a major milestone for our company, but it didn’t look certain that we would make it. Can you imagine how this messed with my head?

Instead of planning our work, and working our plan, I went into full on “bull-in-a-china-shop” mode to do whatever it took to hit the milestone. I knew there was no way my poor confused brain would be able to handle coming so close to the finish line, only to come crashing down in an unceremonious, yet spectacular, crash just inches short of crossing it.

Long story short: I “Mega Packed” Christmas.

The new 500 Book Mega Pack is my “blaze of glory” effort to end this year firmly across the finish line of our goals. Plain and simple, it is not normal, it is extremely rare, it is massively discounted, and it may be your only opportunity ever to take advantage of my obsessive compulsive desire to hit goals, and make you a huge winner too. I know that I can’t get there without you, so I had to do what it takes to reward you with an unbelievably compelling offer for helping me reach my goals.

With fewer than a dozen days left in the year, something spectacular had to be done to “move the needle” enough to guarantee victory. We had to do something extreme.

Mega Pack is extreme.

It is not just another product or promotion. It is the biggest discount we have ever offered. In fact, it is so good I actually asked my team not to allow dynamic pricing on it, because the discount was already bigger than anything we had ever done before. Credit to whom credit is due, and good news for you… my team fought for you, to make it even better, and pleaded to let you win twice and combine the best discount we’ve ever had with even further discounting from your dynamic price.

You’ll notice that Mega Pack doesn’t have the same look and feel of most of our marketing. It is hyped, sensational, and perhaps a bit cheesy. That’s my fault. I assure you I will back off the cheese and let our high standards of elegance return once this promotion is over. The reason for the cheese is to stand out and shake you by the shoulders and plead with you to realize the truth. We knew we had to make something this extremely incredible to get your attention and convince you to spend your money now—just so we could hit our goal for this year. We can both win, and that’s a good thing.

It really will go away, forever.

Now that you know the truth behind why this product is so incredibly discounted and hyped, you’ll forgive us for forcing everyone to place their orders for it before the end of the year, because the reality is we are really just trying to hit a goal, not make more money. As crazy as that sounds, it is the truth. That’s why we are discontinuing the product at the end of the year, even though we know it could make a lot of money in the future. The goal is right before us, and we need to hit it now, because once December 31 passes, it won’t matter anymore. I’d rather hit the goal now than make more money overall. I know, I have a problem. (Fortunately I know where to get some great biblical counseling books.)

Please don’t blame the team for my cheese.

Now I’ve been saying “me,” “my,” and “I” all over this post… but please don’t get it wrong, all the work that went into creating this massive product and promotion from scratch in just a few days was put in by the incredible team of amazing people at Logos, right before Christmas. All I did was be unreasonably obsessive compulsive and throw a wrench in the spokes of the well laid plans they were already executing on. Please reward the team’s work by buying the Mega Pack (and if you appreciate all their hard work, please show it with a kind word for them in the comments section below). Thanks!

So there you have it. The 500 Book Mega Pack is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get the best discount we have ever offered on a massive $10,000.00+ library of books, for a ridiculously small fraction of that price, and I can feel all warm and fuzzy about hitting a goal, (hmm I can’t help but feel that you are getting the bigger win here) but you have to act now!

You might not believe I’d say this…

I know it sounds crazy to hear me to say it, but the Mega Pack may not be for you. Really, you don’t have to buy it. Did you get that? One more time to be sure—don’t let the marketing hype push you into a bad financial position—seriously. It doesn’t matter how good the deal is if it is not a good idea for your finances. If you can’t afford this (or any impulse luxury you don’t need) don’t buy it. I’d rather completely miss this goal than push one person into dire financial straits.

Just because it is the best discount we have ever offered, doesn’t mean you have to have it. Yes it is a great deal, but if you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. I’d hate to think that you made a poor financial decision for you or your family because I felt a compulsion to hit a goal that was set just for fun. We are not a publicly traded company, we have no one to impress, we are doing great, we aren’t even talking about what the goal is. I just thought it would be fun to hit the goal, and I wanted you to be blessed with an unprecedented opportunity to get a huge library of books that are sure to help you continue to explore and discover the wonders of the Word of God, at an amazing discount, so we both win big. You get an incredible deal, I get bragging rights. Hey wait a second, now that I “say it out loud” it doesn’t seem like I’m making such a great call here, what I am I going to do with bragging rights? Oh well, that ship has sailed. It’s alright if you are winning more than I am, I don’t mind.

Why are you reading when you should be dialing?

If money is no object, or if a payment plan of $39 per month or less is not a strain, you should be dialing 888-875-9491 right now. If you don’t call right now (and please note the area code is “888″ not “800″) or add the Mega Pack to your shopping cart in the next sixty seconds, I won’t feel sorry for you when you realize you really did want it come January, and the only way you can get it is to meticulously add 500 books to your cart and shell out $10,000.00 or so. I guess it is your call, $399.95 now or $10,000.00 later, hmm, tough call. OK, honestly I will feel sorry for you, so maybe I’ll shave a few thousand dollars off that $10,000.00 order, but it still won’t be $399.95 like it is now while you still have time.

The Logos Book Cache program charges your credit card a fixed amount each month to purchase credit on your Logos.com account. Select the amount of credit you wish to purchase; once a month, your card will be charged automatically and the credit placed in your account. Your credit may be used on any purchase at Logos.com, including Pre-Pubs and Community Pricing titles. If you wish to change the amount of credit you’re purchasing, or discontinue the service, you may cancel at any time.

Why use Book Cache?

Pre-Pubs are designed to give you the biggest discounts possible in exchange for full payment on the day each title ships. Unfortunately, when you can’t afford such a big charge all at once, you’re left with unattractive options. You can either put the full amount on a credit card and deal with the fallout, or pay a lot more at the higher price once it ships, just so you can get it on a payment plan.

With Book Cache you can begin purchasing credit for your Logos.com account now, so you’ll be ready when that irresistible Pre-Pub comes around. You get the best of all worlds: credit that never expires, the massive Pre-Pub discount, an automatic monthly charge, and no payment-plan fees! [Read more...]

It’s a challenge to market Bible study tools. Products don’t sell themselves, and we are a business; selling things is how we pay the bills and continue to support ourselves and users. It sounds like we’re always selling, and in a way we are.

Someone could be cynical and say that we’re only encouraging people to study the Bible because we make money when they do. But we are in this business because we love making a product that serves the church while supporting our families. We really do want people to go deeper into the Bible, and we really are offering you an exceptional deal, on a fantastic product, for a limited time. It’s okay that we both win here!

“Limited time” is a tricky thing

When deciding how long to make our Logos 5 upgrade sale, we tried to think of everyone. By offering the introductory specials at the end of the year and extending them into the new year, we tried to help many of our pastors and leaders take full advantage of year-end or new-year’s book budgets. We gave plenty of notice so that those receiving cash for Christmas could plan ahead, those who wanted to put the purchase on their wish-lists could tell their loved ones, and those who needed to tighten their budgets to save up could plan ahead. Three months is actually pretty long for a “limited-time” sale, but don’t let that fool you—the sale really is over after this weekend (Monday night, Feb 4, 2013, at 11:59 p.m. PST, to be exact.)

Here’s where it gets challenging

There’s something special about a deadline’s finality that grabs people’s attention—unfortunately, too often on the wrong side of that deadline. It’s amazing how many people seem to call the week after a three-month sale to say, “Okay, you convinced me, I’ve waited three months, now I’m ready to get the deal,” only to be told they just missed out. Don’t let that be your sad story. Upgrade now before it’s too late.

Bottom line—there is no risk, just reward

If you only learn one thing about us from a customer-service standpoint, I hope it is that we have an amazingly awesome team that will bend over backwards to take care of you. We are here to serve you at every level and in every department, all the way to the top. If you ever have a situation that can’t be handled by our staff, you can go straight to our president.

Our customer service is your 100% iron-clad purchase-protection policy. Perhaps you haven’t read all the copy, watched all the videos, or learned everything there is to know about all your upgrade options—I get it, it can be overwhelming. My encouragement to you is to learn what you can, verify that the incredible deals we’re claiming to give you are true, and—if you don’t have the time or patience to do all your research right now—just jump in at the highest level you can to lock in your special discounted sale price (and the extended payment plans). Then, take your time to get familiar with the new product, texts, tools, datasets . . . at your leisure. If you decide it wasn’t the right move for you, we’ll be glad to return that upgrade and serve you with a full refund any time in the next 30 days.

We really want to serve you, even if you just want to give it a “test run” for 30 days. Remember: you can go for the biggest collection upgrade possible and still have a relatively small first-month charge on your credit card, thanks to our extended payment-plan options. Even if you decide you just want to take 30 days to see what it’s like to have the biggest and best, there’s no risk to you, and you’ll only be charged the first month’s payment. If you decide not to keep it, even that will be refunded—there is simply no risk.

Call our upgrade hotline at 1-888-875-9491 orsend us an email and talk to someone about your upgrade options.

We need to talk.

I don’t know exactly how to say this other than “we can’t figure it out,” but the truth is, with over 17,000 titles, thousands of different publisher licenses/price-points/royalties/geographical restrictions, and hundreds of thousands of unique customer purchase histories, collections, and libraries, we just can’t figure out how to make a one-size-fits-all Christmas sale any longer.

We have certainly been trying, as you can see by how many deals we have going on right now but we know that some of our best customers still feel left out in the cold.

Let’s connect in real time.

If you feel passed over by all our Christmas Specials this year, let’s connect in real time as human beings and pick up a phone for a real conversation where we can learn from each other, discuss how to go deeper in Bible study, and enjoy the pleasure of each other’s company while we serve you and give you the full attention and personalized service you deserve.

We will treat you as an individual and go over your specific account details, purchase history, and product interests to create a Christmas special that is custom-made for you.

This call is not for everyone.

It is a real conversation designed to discover how we can serve you better. There is no set list of offers or products to tell you about—we’ve already given that list out—that’s what the web is for. If you are looking for a discounted shopping list, or just want to know everything we have on sale, carefully look over all the published Christmas Sales that are still available here.

The phone conversation is a two way “conversation,” to see how we can serve you better with a custom special.

There you have it, we want to serve you. It is as simple as that. Give us a call at 800-875-6467 and we will take care of you. We’ll work with you to create a custom deal for you, and we’ll even count all your purchases made before January 2, 2012 toward the Christmas Credit promotion.

We have backgrounds like you.

When you call a Logos representative, you are not being passed off to a call center 20,000 miles away from us. All our representatives are right here at our headquarters in Bellingham, WA and have backgrounds like many of you. Among our representatives we have a wide variety of life experiences and jobs—everything from pastors, worship leaders, engineers, small group directors, exercise equipment salesmen, news reporters, youth leaders, marketing reps, police officers, graphic designers, children’s ministry leaders, manufacturers, travel agents, teachers, homebuilders, pulpit supply preachers, waiters, legal consultants, basketball coaches, Bible college students, restaurant managers, young adults pastors, real estate agents, missionaries jailed for preaching the Gospel, pastoral care pastors, women’s ministry leaders. . . and more.

And if you need to talk to someone who understands your history with Logos better, we even have reps that have been here as long as eighteen years!

The mad rush of pre-Christmas shopping is over, the office is quiet and peaceful, and our well-trained, experienced and knowledgeable representatives are ready, willing, and able to serve you now.

Please call us so we may serve you today:

USA & Canada: 800-875-6467

UK Discounted: 0871-218-1700

International: (360) 527-1700

If you won’t be able to reach us during this last week of 2011, or you live overseas and timing or costs don’t permit you to make the call, please send an email to sales@logos.com with the details you would have liked to have discussed in our conversation, and we will see what we can do through email.

We’ve been thinking about having a Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale, soliciting ideas from our customers, and doing a little research on Black Friday sales in general.

One of the first things we came across in our research was a lot of reporting on the stress and frenzy of Black Friday shopping. Apparently if you decide to get in a car and go to the shops, it is going to be insanely busy. One description of Black Friday we read started off like this:

“Like lions stalking their prey, eager shoppers line up at the crack of dawn, waiting to pounce on the best deals. In a jungle-like atmosphere, anxious shoppers strategize their method of attack and then grab their purchases, all for the chance at a good deal.”- Lauren Wietchy, Valley Vanguard

Sounds a little crazy doesn’t it?

Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to shopping, so this year, we have decided to give you the best of both worlds: shopping without leaving your pajamas or the comfort of your home, and the thrill from the bargain “hunting” aspect of Black Friday.

Here’s the deal:

You pick any three products that you wish were on sale, send us an email, and we’ll send you our exclusive limited time sale price. If you like the prices, buy one, two, or all three. You decide.

We have thousands of titles available at exclusive Black Friday/Cyber Monday discounts, but we aren’t going to publicly advertise what they all are (crazy, huh?!) No price list, no product list, The deals are so good that we are limiting them to three per customer, and only by request.

Here’s where the thrill comes in.

You have one chance to pick your top three items and send in one request for a price quote on just those three items.

We have sales staff working on Friday and Monday (and maybe a little email coverage on Saturday too), and we’ll try to get back to as many emails as possible on Friday and Monday, but as long as you are in before the deadline you are covered.

Send one email to sales@logos.com. In the email you must include the following information:

Your name and phone number.

The name of three products you want exclusive Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals on.

The web address (URL) of each of the three products you want exclusive Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals on.

To help make sure you don’t waste your only three chances for an awesome deal, it’s only fair to warn you that, due to various contracts and licenses, some titles aren’t able to be discounted at all. (Zondervan, Galaxie, Concordia…) Also, don’t ask for a quote for any title that is not shipping yet, since all Pre-Pubs and Community Pricing titles are not available yet, and the sale ends before they go live.

For all emails that arrive before midnight on Monday November 29th, 2010 we will reply with a Black Friday/Cyber Monday exclusive sale price and you will have 48 hours to respond in order to get that price.

Ready, set, shop!

Start browsing our site for the products you want and send your emails in! We’ll get to them first come, first served.

You spend hours each week preparing for your sermon or lessons, and you probably have more to communicate now than ever before. We’ve provided the tools you need to take your preparation to the next level, now it’s time to take your presentation to the next level too.

For nearly two decades we at Logos have digitized print books filled with biblical information. We have also developed state of the art search and retrieval technology enabling you to mine these electronic resources for those scriptural insights.

Using Logos Bible Software you can effectively exegete and study any passage in the Bible. Having thoroughly investigated the biblical text, you probably have page after page of notes, quotes, and anecdotes. If you’re a preacher, teacher, or Bible study leader you now have to organize and present that material so your listeners can understand and apply the passage.

It is great to have high-end professional-level tools like Logos Bible Software to prepare your sermon, but until now, you’ve been on your own to know how to preach it. We felt the next step was to provide you with professional-level presentation training from one of the most gifted and professional presenters we have ever met.

As a Logos user you perhaps know Morris as the instructor at Camp Logos, the author of training manuals, and the producer of video tutorials. First and foremost, though, he is a pastor and expository preacher. Through almost 30 years of preaching and teaching God’s word, Morris has honed his communication skills. People who hear him preach are inspired by his insights into Scripture, his passionate presentation, and his down-to-earth communication style.

Because of the encouragement from others, Morris decided to organize and record his personal sermon preparation process into the I-Beam seminar. Using the analogy of a construction I-Beam, Morris shows you how to fulfill what he believes to be the two great principles of biblical preaching or teaching:

Be Faithful to the Text

Be Functional for the Times

After explaining these foundational principles, Morris then thoroughly—yet practically—walks you through six steps of preparing an expository message:

Interpretation

Incompletion

Impression

Implication

Intention

Indentation

After completing these six steps you will have a skeleton of a sermon or lesson. Morris then carefully shows you how to add flesh to the bones. He leaves no stone unturned as he teaches you, among other things, how to begin your message with an attention-getting, need-revealing introduction, powerfully state your main points, and smoothly transition from one segment of the message to the next. Wrapping it all up, he instructs you to boldly and practically end the message as you call for action from your listeners.

The I-Beam of Message Building is a video training course to watch on your TV. It works on a standard DVD player (or DVD software on your computer). It does not require Logos Bible Software. It actually picks up where Logos Bible study ends. If you teach or preach, you will immediately profit from this resource. The I-Beam program is like a video textbook on the art of preaching and teaching biblical truths.

You will learn from a master teacher as you watch these professionally produced videos and follow along in the I-Beam manual that is included with the set. Using the hyperlinked menus and the back / forward buttons, you can jump to or review any section you desire.

I-Beam picks up where Logos Bible study leaves off. It shows you how to organize your research into sermons or lessons that are both biblical in content and applicable in presentation.

If you are a preacher, teacher, or Bible study leader the I-Beam is for you. Whether you are a seasoned communicator or a beginning presenter, the I-Beam provides foundational principles and practical advice for your proclamation of God’s Word.

It’s 1:30 AM. You’re dead tired, and still haven’t gone to bed. You’ve got to finish your study before the 8:00 men’s breakfast this morning, and it’s a Saturday. Logos is closed, and you can’t figure out how to get the report you need for your presentation. Don’t give up hope, getting the answer to your question may be easier than you think.

The Logos Bible Software Forums are live 24 hours a day and have users from every time zone on earth. While it may be 1:30 AM for you, it is the middle of the day or evening for others. Not to mention that there are already 20,000+ threads with about 158,000 posts. The answer to your question may already be listed right there without having to ask.

If you haven’t tried the forums, now is the time. Just jump in and start getting involved. It is a great way to meet other users, share your passion for Bible study, make friends, get help, and join the discussion to help influence the future of the best Bible software on the planet!

Here are some stats to give you a feel for the type of community the forums support, as of the time of writing this post.

Forum activity:

29,532 Users

20,233 Threads

157,917 Posts

224,702 Absolute Unique Visitors

1,054,088 Visits

8,299,962 Pageviews

Forum visitors:

Total Countries represented: 203

Top 25 Countries

United States

United Kingdom

Canada

Australia

New Zealand

Netherlands

South Africa

Hong Kong

Germany

Singapore

Sweden

India

Brazil

Philippines

Denmark

Czech Republic

China

Spain

France

Finland

Israel

South Korea

Switzerland

Bahamas

Italy

A great place to jump in and try your first post is in the “Newbies” thread, just drop in and introduce yourself. After you do a little “meet and greet” you can take a look at another great thread that can give you a good feel for the type of community you can expect here by checking out the thread entitled “We have become friends throught the forum”.

The next time you have a question at 1:30 AM on a Saturday, or if you happen to be up and have the answers to someone else’s question, the Logos Bible Software Forums are a great place to spend some time with great people interested in getting the most out of God’s Word.

Almost a decade ago I found myself on the phone with a man whose office was a hospital bed.

I had never met him before, but I had heard that he was dying of complications from pulmonary fibrosis and cancer. From what I understood, he was in a hospital bed under his doctor’s supervision, with oxygen tubes in his nose. Unlike some men around 80 with similar declining health and a restrictive lung disease, he didn’t stop talking or let his shortness of breath silence him. He was taking the time and effort to make sure he personally spoke with me, to secure my word in order to see his vision through to the end.

Most of you reading this have spent far more time ministering to and visiting with the sick than I have, and I have been moved by many stories of those under your care and in your own families finishing strong. So what makes this situation so remarkable? Personal attention to something that could have been so easily delegated.

This particular man had representatives in almost 200 countries, 25,000+ full-time employees, and more than 225,000 trained volunteers for his organization. So why was he the one on the phone? Why wasn’t I talking to his staff? What could be so special that he had to personally take the time, and endure the physical discomfort to ensure this got done himself?

With the launch of our most significant product ever—Logos Bible Software 4—there are bound to be some questions. As you can imagine, our phone lines are busier than ever with excited callers trying to either order the brand new collections, upgrade to the new packages, or get answers to some very common questions on this completely “new to everyone” product.

We’ve tried to answer some of the most common questions on our product pages, in our Technical FAQ, and in our General FAQ. As always, we are happy to try to answer any other questions you may have over the phone, but our lines are so busy right now (even with extended hours until 9:00 PM Pacific, additional staffing, and lots of overtime) that wait times are much longer than normal.

You might want to stop reading right now and close this web page—this is probably not for you.

Almost everyone choosing to continue reading this post after such a stern warning, still won’t be in the market for this collection. It is so massive and out of reach for the average consumer that we almost didn’t tell people about it at all. Think of it like the super-secret Centurion Card. Only a handful of people will ever own this package—and that’s okay—it is not for everyone.

We realize we are taking a big risk even telling people about this package at all. It is sure to be misunderstood and criticized for stereotypical American extravagance, excess, greed, pride, or [insert preferred accusation of evil here].

The reason we are taking the risk to even discuss it, is because we tried to hide it from the beginning and when people heard about it later, they complained that we never let them know to begin with. As you will see in the following description, the Portfolio Edition is the best way to get the largest library of quality content at the lowest possible price. You’ll read more later, but to give you a preview, it contains over $31,000.00 worth of print titles (more than 1,550 resources) all for pennies on the dollar. Don’t let the price-tag fool you—it is actually the most economical way to build the largest library we have ever offered.

Base packages always offer the best chance to get the most content at the lowest price, and bigger base packages are better deals. Since the biggest base package is always the best deal, some customers just want the biggest and best. It affords them the chance to save the most on their books and resources.

Until recently, our largest base package had always been Scholar’s Library: Gold. It’s a great deal, packed with hundreds of Bibles, commentaries, reference material, and lots of other resources. But with the release of Logos Bible Software 4, the time was right to introduce a bigger base package—much bigger.

Portfolio is by far the largest library we’ve ever offered. It represents a major milestone in the publication of biblical and theological reference books, with more than 1,550 resources. Here are some highlights:

450+ Volumes of Bible Commentaries. The Pillar New Testament Commentary, the New International Greek Testament Commentary, the New American Commentary, the Baker New Testament Commentary, the UBS Handbook Series, the JPS Tanakh Commentaries, Keil & Delitzsch, Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae, the Holman New Testament Commentary, and several more sets are included in Portfolio.

Greek and Hebrew Helps.100+ volumes of grammars, lexicons, and more for Greek and Hebrew study. You’ll also find dozens of original language texts, including the major Greek and Hebrew texts.

Preaching and Ministry. Portfolio comes with over 100 resources on preaching, teaching, and ministry, including 10,000+ sermon illustrations, quotations, and other helps. It also includes an 80-volume ministry resource library, with resources on everything from youth ministry to small groups.

To put this in perspective, if you were building a print library this big, you would need to buy a book every week for the next 29 years, and you would spend more than $31,000 for the print editions (not adjusted for inflation). To store all your books, you would need over 160 feet of new shelf space—that’s a dozen new bookcases. With print, however, you wouldn’t have any of the high speed search functionality, Passage Guides and Exegetical Guides, media resources, Word Studies, customization, or any of the other new features in Logos Bible Software 4.

The price of Portfolio is similar to what you would pay for only a few of the print commentary sets, except with Portfolio, you’ll get the commentaries you want, plus over a thousand additional books, all for the same price. Better yet, spread out the cost over the next year with a payment plan. You can apply your monthly book budget to each payment to begin using your entire library right away.

We want to make sure it is crystal clear once more—this is probably not for you.If you are happy with your existing library and never plan on buying a book again, just move along, there’s nothing to see here. However, if you are like a lot of book lovers, and you realize that you are already spending your book budget, your travel budget, your kids education fund, your entertainment budget, and your milk money on more and more books—and have already spent thousands of dollars on books in the past few years—you would be crazy not to get this.

Take this “kitchen sink” now to end your book purchasing habit once and for all, then start saving your money, give your money away, be more hospitable, care for the poor, bless your church, family and friends, take your wife/husband/kids on a trip, buy Logos for someone that can’t afford it at all… “Love God, and do as you please.”

If you already have a Logos base package, we have some limited time introductory offers available for upgrades to the Portfolio Edition. Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for.

Not ready for the Portfolio Edition, but looking for something smaller?
New customers should visit https://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available on all of our base packages.

Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to the brand new Logos 4 base packages.